Feeling the need to have some changes in my life, I’ve decided to create the new “Linandara and Artish Folk” website. A proper one. It is going to be about arts, crafts, creativity, lifestyle, ethical issues, located at linandara.com and linandara.co.uk . Few days ago I did a first step: a temporary simple “business card” type website. Everything (like life itself) is a work in progress. There is now a facebook group for the future site, which eventually will have a forum. Please feel free to join the group and I hope you enjoy being in it.

To let people know about the new website I had an idea to do some handmade business cards. They are evolving as I make them. On the back I’ve put some keywords which would describe the future site, topics which would be discussed on it or be associated with it. The list is changing from card to card. At the moment it includes Arts, crafts, creativity, handmade, fantasy, rationalist, dreaming, emphatic, discovery, freethinking, impressionalist, folk art, bohemian, ethnic, eccentric, independent, sci-fi, по-русски, commissions, one of the kind, etc.

Firstly there is a debate what is science. Is it only study of the subjects that could be described mathematically or proven in a simple experiment? What about the studies of complex systems in geography, biology, human behavior? I think it is all just about honesty. Scientific approach is the honest one. This I know, this I don’t know, this I suggest. No fairies, special dreams or unquestionable authorities.

Secondly… Apparently it is common for some professional artists, when they find out that they don’t have long to live, to destroy the artwork they think is “substandard”. I could understand when an artwork is overpainted immediately as it finished because it is disliked – it makes sence. But if it was kept for years there must be some perceived value in it, maybe only sentimental. So what? Do we bother what people think about us when we do not exist any more? Who are we fooling? What about next generation artists, depressed because they seems to have “bad painting” days while apparently “old masters” never had them?

When East and West, North and South embraced each other, when prints became produced and sold on global scale, when the way we see the world became firmly affected by photography… 1890s-1950s. Beautiful postery style, both decorative and realistic, traditional and modern, Oriental and European reigned. Areas of flat color, bold composition and outlines are very typical for this period.

There is a very nice folk art exhibition at the VAN Art Gallery (Shrewsbury Market). It probably will end up quite soon, maybe on 27th – I am not sure. There are some pictures. All came from the same region of Zimbabwe.